Memorial To The Gay Victims Of Nazi’s Holocaust Unveiled In Paris
Paris just added a striking monument to its landscape—one that acknowledges LGBTQIA+ victims of Nazi persecution. This new memorial brings attention to a group often left out of Holocaust narratives.
A Star Wand That Speaks Volumes
French artist Jean-Luc Verna created a giant star wand that lies on the ground. One side is black, the other silver. The city unveiled it on May 17, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.
“The black side forces us to remember,” Verna explained. At certain times, it casts a long shadow across the ground—a visual reminder of ongoing threats.
The silver side reflects “the Paris sky moving as quickly as public opinion, which can change at any moment,” Verna noted.
Numbers Tell a Brutal Story
The Nazis arrested about 100,000 men for homosexuality between 1933 and 1945. Courts sentenced 50,000 of them, and up to 15,000 ended up in concentration camps. There, they wore pink triangles—what historian Benno Gammerl calls a “Nazi invention.”
While German law had criminalized same-sex relationships since 1871, persecution intensified dramatically under Nazi rule.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo put it simply:
“Historical recognition means saying ‘this happened’ and ‘we don’t want it to happen again’.”
The memorial arrives at a crucial moment. Deputy Mayor Jean-Luc Roméro didn’t mince words: “We didn’t know this monument would be inaugurated at one of the worst moments we’re going through right now. We’ve never experienced such a setback in the United States, with what’s happening to trans people.”
This Paris memorial joins others across Europe and beyond. They do more than honor victims—they recover histories that official records often erased. They connect past persecution to current struggles.
These monuments make visible what many would prefer to forget. They remind us that rights we take for granted today were denied to others not so long ago.
Read Gary Nunn’s feature Gays Incarcerated in DNA #298, to learn more about gay men in the Nazi holocaust and other examples of the imprisonment and oppression of LGBTQIA+ people by the state. Available at DNA Shop.
Print and Digital versions are out now! Get DNA #298 here.
